fashionablemathematician - fashion

Moving On

2008-08-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,

After doing a lot of thinking and reading over vacation, I've decided to shut this blog down. By no means am I done with blogging, but this site really was my first attempt at the beast, and I need to make some fundamental changes. Thank you all for reading (and occasionally commenting). You can follow me to:

3stylelife

Thanks-
Barry

Technology Hiatus

2008-07-25T11:49:00.002-04:00

Hey all,

Going on vacation for the next 9 days. No computer implies no posting. I'll be back on August 4th stronger than ever. Enjoying the beaches of Ocean City, MD.

-III

Outfit Analysis 7.24.8

2008-07-24T13:58:00.005-04:00

Today’s analysis is short and sweet, a lead in to a general idea for a post in a few days.

Goal(s):

To utilize a piece of clothing I’ve never worn before.

Pieces:

Shoes: Black Rockport XCS (seen these before?)

Socks: Standard ankle-cut black socks.

Pants: Black Rocco jeans from Express (also familiar)

Belt: Black belt with rectangular silver buckle from Express.

Undershirt: Heather gray 2004 Premier Driving School T-Shirt (I’ve never ever worn this, it’s too small and, it’s a driving school T-shirt, from four years ago).

Shirt: Dark pink and black striped polo from Old Navy (this is a new piece, so I also haven’t worn it before, but that doesn’t count).

Pictures:

Victories:

First of all, just getting this wonderful polo from Old Navy is a victory. I went before getting my hair cut on Monday, just to browse. I saw they had new polos in, but wasn’t particularly interested in any of the designs. Then I saw this pink and black one on a poster on the wall. Naturally, I couldn’t find it anywhere in the store. Nearly defeated, I asked a cashier if they still had it. She didn’t know, but asked the manager. Out of nowhere, the manager just pulls one from beneath another register! I couldn’t believe my eyes. What size? Large! Perfect. Oh yeah, it’s on clearance as well! What a score, 60% off on my favorite shirt in the store.

Alrighty, now that I’ve got that out, let’s get back to the goal at hand. Much of the outfit is pretty standard for me (from the waist down in fact). The black jeans from Express are particularly useful to me, since I wear a fair amount of black and black compatible colors. The pink/black striped polo brings a nice amount of color and contrast to the party, with fairly bold, thick striping.

However, how was I supposed to extract value from that random gray tee shirt? There are a few points to consider:

Because I’m wearing a polo, I’m going to be wearing an undershirt regardless, and this one fits the bill (utility wise) as good as any. Especially with the higher buttons on this particular polo, any fancy designs or luxurious fabrics aren’t going to be showcased. All anyone is going to see is a small triangle right below the neckline.

Fortunately, this shirt makes good use of that space. The design is fully below this area, so we don’t end up with partially visible text (this can detract from intentionality due to the in-between-ness of the result). Further, the heather gray provides the outfit’s only region of low value, low saturation color, making a fairly prominent contrast, allowing the bright pinks and strong blacks to have a source of comparison. This makes them all the more brighter and stronger, respectively. Finally, the heather texture gives a nice consistency of fabric texture. A subtle detail, but it certainly can’t hurt.

The punchline to this goal, and my above justification, is that certain garments and uses do not require high-cost, high-fashion purchases. I’m going to detail where not to waste spend your money in an upcoming post.

Failures:

While you can’t see that my undershirt is too small, I can certainly feel it. I’ve noticed, especially when shirts are too small in the shoulder and chest, that the fabric loses breathability and induces sweating, even when I don’t feel hot. Sweating, of course, is uncomfortable, and if you feel uncomfortable, you’re more likely to look uncomfortable. That’s no fun.

Visually, however, I’m very happy with the outfit. To improve it even further, we could increase the level of contrast. A bright, white undershirt may be a more distinct change, and we could add more small regions of this accent color to create a coherent contrast throughout. Options include prominent white detailing on a belt, white shoelaces or shoe detailing, even modifying the buttons to be white (this can be accomplished easily with paint or even a Sharpie). These modifications would be especially nice because of the individuality they bring to the pieces (you can’t buy this polo shirt with white buttons, for example).

Comments: The photographer said that the outfit "was nice." Thanks.

Credit: The photographer remains anonymous.

Outfit Analysis: 7.21.8

2008-07-21T15:10:00.003-04:00

Goal(s):

To utilize a piece of clothing which no longer fits properly, so that I can continue to extract fashion value from it.

Pieces:

Shoes: Brown Nike Air Series 6D. (I can't currently find them in brown on the Nike website)

Socks: Standard white socks (don’t worry, someday something unusual will crop up here, I promise)

Pants: Dark Blue Rocco Jeans from Express. Moderately prominent yellow-brown stitch detailing which matches the lighter tone on the shoe.

Shirt: Pink Paramore concert t-shirt. This is the piece which does not fit properly. When I saw Paramore on Warped Tour in 2007, this was my favorite design for sale, but they only sold it in women’s sizes. I figured a 2X would be big enough, but I was clearly wrong.

Topcoat: Blue Merona sport blazer. A very casual cotton navy blazer with three buttons.

Pictures:

First, you can see how ill fitting the Paramore shirt is. Notice the bunching in the shoulder area, and the absurd shortness of the sleeve.

Now, the full outfit…

…post-haircut!

Victories:

The first step to success here is to hide the fact that the Paramore shirt really doesn’t fit. This is most obvious in the arms and shoulders (to a lesser extent the length of the shirt). We take care of this by covering those areas with a longer-sleeved garment, in this case a casual navy blazer.

Even more, covering these areas doesn’t take away any of the impact of such a bold shirt. The unusual font detailing is largely uncovered, and there was nothing on the sleeves that we’ll now miss. The interior edges of the blazer, left unbuttoned, actually serve to frame the graphic on the shirt.

From a color standpoint, we introduce three distinct blue colors, the darkest navy on the blazer, a lighter blue denim wash, and the brighter turquoise detailing on the shirt. While this does seem to violate a monochromatic principle; to house the darkest colors on the bottom pieces of the outfit, we’re OK because the darkest piece is that with the most weight, the blazer (it is the largest in size, and drapes over the body, indicating weight).

The main contrast comes from the two pinks on the shirt contrasting with the blues. Inside the shirt itself, we have significant hue, saturation, and value contrasts (which is why the shirt appears “loud”), while between the shirt and other garments we remove the stronger saturation contrasts. Corralling the heavy contrasts portions to a single garment is a good way to ensure the outfit doesn’t become too straining on the eye. We retain definite borders, but avoid any unpleasant contrasting.

Finally, we have a contrast in fit. The jeans and Paramore shirt are both tighter than average fits. Consequently, the loose fit of the blazer serves to dampen the tightness of the overall look, allowing us to avoid thoughts that our clothes are simply too small/too tight. This juxtaposition simultaneously accentuates and moderates the relative fits (which in both cases are slightly extreme).

Failures:

While the outfit does certainly achieve its main goal, it is not without room for improvement.

First of all, I’m wearing a blazer in summer. Now, I’ll be the first to say that there is nothing wrong (fashion-wise) with that, at all. However, its really hot when I’m outside. Inside it’s no problem, but if you’re going to be walking around outside or something, I do not recommend you follow suit. You’ll find it to be quite the sadmaker.

Further, I find that the blazer sleeves are a bit too short, which is especially noticeable while I’m typing. It’s nothing drastic, but an inch more would be great. I frequently run into this problem, given my tall frames.

Finishing off the blazer, I hate the little pills/fuzzes that accumulate on this type of clothing. Academically I’m aware it really can’t be seen, and that it’s quite normal, but it drives me nuts. This is a significant point, as if you’re uncomfortable in your clothing, you’ll look uncomfortable in your clothing, and this can make visual difference (perhaps not in a photograph, but in actual life).

Comments:

Not related to my clothing at all, but while I was at Starbucks, someone ordered a 7-pump caramel latte. SEVEN pumps. That’s more than a little frightening. Also heard a 5-shot skinny caramel machiatto. I’m pretty sure 5-shot and skinny are mutually exclusive. Apparently not.

A few people also asked if I was hot wearing that jacket. The answer, of course, was yes.

Credit:

Thanks to Tracy, the person who cut my hair today, for taking the picture!

Where to Get Tee Shirts Online

2008-07-16T10:25:00.004-04:00

As promised, I've returned with a comprehensive look at where to find good, valuable tee shirts online. Of course, where to go depends heavily on what you want, so things are broken down into categories.

Basics/Staples:

There's no reason to shell out big-bucks for basic solid-color tees (especially whites) that are almost always going to be worn underneath things. If you're going to wear a solid shirt as a standalone, yes, you might want to invest in something with excellent fit. In general, however, you're looking for value, vibrant colors, and comfortable fabric. To this end, cheaper department-type stores are often great (they have the volume to allow for lower prices), and often have sales when new brands of basic tee come along. You'll also be a little more sure of quality and durability.

Kohl's
Old Navy
Target

Beware, non-basics here (design tee shirts) are less reliable in quality, not as good a value, and are much less likely to be uniquely worn. This is, of course, not really a factor for solid color shirts.

Creating Your Own:

If you want uniqueness, the easiest way to guarantee is to create your own design. You can do this by hand at home, but the artistic portion is often easier on the computer. Fortunately, there are a number of websites which allow you to upload designs to be made into shirts (or other garments). Many of these sites give you the option to keep your design private (ensuring yours is the only one), or to make it public (you make money off of it).

CafePress
Printfection
PrintMojo
Spreadshirt
Zazzle

Community:

Obviously, with all the information, all the stores, and all the designs out on the internet, it's impossible to look through even a small percentage of the available material. Fortunately, you're not alone, and there are a number of websites which either distill the good information and good finds, or provide a community to discuss tee shirts.

Remember, especially with blogs, that you're only getting one person's point of view, and often this view is presented as obvious truth, but with no evidence! Don't be afraid to disagree or do your own research as well!

T-Shirt Forums
TCritic
The Daily Tee
The T-Shirt Blog

Designs:

Finding uniquely designed shirts often requires a bit more searching than the basics. Especially since people have different tastes, it's also hard to recommend places to look that will please everyone (or a majority, or even a minority!). This website provides a number of good jumping off places, but no real indication of what you'll find:

T-Shirt Links

Other commonly known places which design shirts are (and there are many more out there):

BurnTees
BustedTees
Snorg Tees
Tees.com
Threadless

Specifics:

Often, you're looking for a specific message or group to support with your tee shirt. These things are typically easier to find, given the specificity. For example, band tee shirts are usually very easy to find. Most of the time you can get them from the band's own webpage, and failing that, a google search of "xbandx tee shirt" is probably sufficient.

One website with a large number of band shirts is:

Jiggy

A good resource for sports team shirts (besides the websites of the teams themselves) is:

Fanwear

Even things you would assume to be very obscure can be tackled with a simple google search. Some examples:

Romeo and Juliet Shirt
Florida Everglades Shirts
School House Rock Shirt
Legends of the Hidden Temple Shirt

Conclusions:

It's usually not that hard to find what a tee shirt, if you know ahead of time what you're looking for. If you're in search of a new wicked design, you may have to search a little longer, but the resources are out there. Unsatisfied with what's already out there? Take a stab at it yourself, people have made it amazingly easy to do nowadays! Enjoy and find your perfect shirt!

Outfit Analysis 7.15.8

2008-07-15T16:04:00.003-04:00

Back again with another outfit analysis. My time in Starbucks today was particularly amusing since I could hear a new barista being trained. All the indoctrination is downright hilarious. I hope the managers don't actually believe all the crap they tell their employees.

I love how the core values of Starbucks are like my own personal values, not, like, money or efficiency, or bad stuff like that.

Wow. Anyway, here we go. I forgot my camera, so I took the picture(s) myself at home. The corresponding sections are, therefore, removed.

Goal(s):

To utilize a piece of clothing in an unexpected or unusual fashion, obviously without creating a negative overall effect.

Pieces:

Shoes: Black Rockport Dunstable (again). I continue to get significant mileage out of these shoes. This may be because I wear a lot of black.

Socks: Black socks, unknown brand.

Pants: Black Rocco jeans from Express. These have a wonderful fit, and are quite comfortable. Some (very slight) red stitch detailing.

Undershirt: Purple basic undershirt from Target, worn as the main shirt.

Shirt: Yellow Izod sport polo, worn as the undershirt.

Pictures:

Victories:

Clearly we’ve used a piece (two, really) in an unexpected way. I’m wearing a polo shirt as an undershirt, and an undershirt as the outer layer. This is something I described as an option in a previous Breaking the Norm post. Of course, there are details to consider.

First, one of the main ideas behind the concept is to recreate the idea of a polo collar contrasting with a sweater in a summer-friendly way. This is achieved here because of the sharp contrast between purple and yellow (they are complementary colors).

Another facet is recasting the undershirt as a slightly more dressy piece. We’re helped by the collar and sleeve detailing, and the overall dark color of the shirt. This makes the fabric appear to have more weight (which it does), than an undershirt. A thinner or lighter shirt may show too much of the underlying piece or be so thin that it looks like pajamas.

The rest of the outfit is fairly standard, a nice fitting pair of jeans, with matching shoes. Black is a safe choice as a background color, though we could have matched the purple and yellow with olive, brown, or beige trousers as well (changing shoes as necessary). Further, black jeans are generally regarded as more formal, giving more credence to the “dressy undershirt.”

Failures:

The biggest problem with this outfit is actually one you can’t see. Undershirts are made to be comfortable. Polo shirts are made to be worn over undershirts. The result here is that my polo is a bit itchy, despite being washed just last night. I could wear an additional undershirt underneath the polo (for a total of three layers), but I suspect this would make me look like a puffball. (UPDATE: Confirmation on the puffball.)

Visually, the hardest thing to manage is the different sleeve lengths. The undershirt sleeves are about two inches shorter than the polo shirt sleeves, leading to an awkward differential. Pulling the polo sleeves out completely looks oddly unbalanced, and it’s difficult to keep them reigned in (one must pull in at the shoulders, then pull down, though the sleeves eventually work their way out again). Ideally, the polo sleeves should be shorter than the undershirt sleeves, or no more than half an inch longer (the extra contrast is nice, like a twofer tee shirt).

You can see the bad version of this here:

Getting the Most Value Out of Tee Shirts

2008-07-14T20:11:00.001-04:00

I've previously stated that tee shirts are overrated pieces of clothing. However, especially in summer, we don't always want to wear polos or button-down shirts, let alone multiple layers.

My point before was that tee shirts are typically only seen fully in the summer, and even then they're sometimes hidden behind other layers. Thus, it perplexes me when people pay inordinate amounts for something that's only going to be used fully 2-3 times per year. Believe me, it happens.

However, tee shirts are necessary to have, and if you're going to have some, they might as well be good. Good, of course, doesn't have to mean expensive. Also remember to extract as much value from the shirt as possible. Here are my guidelines:

Try to vary the background colors of your tee shirts. When beneath a sweater, button-down, or even a polo, often the entire design of a tee shirt is obscured. You can, however, still extract value by using the background color strategically with color theory.
Choose unique designs, or use self-design programs. Tee shirts provide an opportunity for very obvious uniqueness. Not everyone is going to notice if you've chosen a unique lapel shape for your newest suit. People tend to notice a shirt with an blue pig bomb on it (what you do with the uniqueness is your responsibility).
Seek out quality fit. Too often, the departmental screen-printed tee comes in three sizes; minuscule, too big, and way too big. This is a shame, because a well-fitting tee shirt can be physique-flattering. When you're wearing just a single layer, this is a nice benefit.
Simplicity is your friend. Often tee shirts cause a lot of "noise" in an outfit, by introducing a huge number of colors, patterns, or design ideas into a small space. Tee shirts with more than a few words are awkward to read (thus decreasing their value). Large numbers of colors can decrease coherence and intentionality, making you "that guy who just throws on the first clean tee shirt in his pile." Instead, aim for simple, easily digestible designs, and vibrant, but sparse color patterns.

I'm working on an article detailing how and where to obtain quality tee shirts, or to make your own. It should go up in a day or two, a more practical (rather than theoretical) approach to getting tee shirts of maximum fashion value.

Outfit Analysis: 7.11.8

2008-07-11T17:17:00.004-04:00

We begin our Outfit Analysis series on this auspicious day, 7.11.8. (I’m not quite sure why I write the date that way, though I think it’s the most efficient (yet still intelligible) way to write it). For an introduction to what the Outfit Analysis series is, click the links in any of the "Outfit Analysis"'s in this paragraph.

Goal(s):

To create a casual clean-cut outfit which expresses some edginess.

Although it is difficult, let me try to make these terms a little more rigorous. We’ll consider a clean cut outfit to fall within the general “preppy” paradigm, and consisting of simple, clean pieces. Edginess we’ll think of as strong symbols or colors, which may be indicative of “tough” people and interest groups. I’ll stop here, before I delve into completely ridiculous definition territory.

Pieces:

Shoes: Black Rockport Dunstable. I’m unsure as to their exact origin because they were a Christmas present. They are a low, long, black casual shoe (almost a “boat shoe”) with prominent white stitching.

Socks: Black Ankle Socks. (Not sure of the brand).

Shorts: Pastel yellow cloth shorts from Club Room.

Undershirt: Pink basic undershirt from Target.

Shirt: Black Old Navy polo with gray skull pattern detailing. I was unable to find it in the online store today, so it may no longer be available.

Pictures:

The outfit of consideration:

Here is a close-up of the skull detailing on the polo:

And a clear look at the shoes:

Victories:

Let’s begin with the first goal; achieving a clean-cut outfit. The cuts/shapes of the garments chosen work well for us here. We have a non-sport shoe, without obvious logos or patterning. The shorts are clean, solid-color and are cut above the knee, as is considered standard. The shirt is a simple polo cut with undershirt beneath. All of thses cuts are common for a “preppy” look during summertime. Use of pastel colors in the shorts and undershirt, against black for the remainder creates distinct, simple color regions, keeping the look uncluttered (and thus, more clean.).

How about the edge? Well, the skulls are the obvious part. Come on, I’ve got fifty skulls on my shirt, I’ve got to be an edgy character. There’s a bit more subtlety to it though. The color black does dominate the outfit, taking up the entire shirt, as well as the shoes. We also leave the polo shirt fully unbuttoned to expose a significant portion of the undershirt. This increases the overall contrast level of the outfit, something which can be difficult when working with weaker (pastel) colors.

Failures:

It’s not terribly obvious from the photograph, but the shorts are fairly wrinkled. This is intentional, because it’s often overlooked, or deemed unimportant. Certain garments do not require wrinkle-free wearing, such as jeans, undershirts, and sportswear. However, the whole goal of the cloth shorts is to appear clean-cut, and wrinkling obviously detracts from this. This also endangers the intentionality of our construction, making it more likely for someone to think the edge/clean cut combination was chance, rather than thought out fashion.

I also think that the outfit would have worked better with a stronger red undershirt, to increase the edginess, without sacrificing the clean, uninterrupted blocks of color in the outfit.

Finally, and this is nitpicking, a shorter sock (or perhaps no sock at all) may be better here, because of the very slight difference in color between sock and shoe. This does cause a slight decrease in the contrast intensity between skin and footwear.

Comments: Two kids mentioned that my shirt looked "pirate-y," and that this was "sweet."

Credit: I'd like to thank Susan for taking the main outfit photo. The detail photos were done by myself.

Outfit Analysis Portal

2008-07-11T17:10:00.004-04:00

In an effort to bring some regularity to this fashion blog, I’m embarking on a series of fashion posts called Outfit Analysis. The basic idea is that multiple times a week, I’ll get dressed in the morning, drive over to a public place, and have a real person (read: not myself) take a picture of the outfit I’m wearing, possibly comment on it, and then include it in the blog. I’ll then provide an analysis of the outfit, outlining the goals it intends to achieve, how well it achieves those goals, and why this is the case. The why, of course, is the most important part, and unfortunately the part I find most often lacking in other fashion writing.

Often, I’ll intentionally make mistakes with the outfits, so that they do not optimally realize their goals. This seems silly, especially since I’m publishing these outfits for the world to see! However, I’ve found that a lot of learning comes out of experiencing something that you think is correct, but then learn to be wrong (I believe the technical term is cognitive dissonance). The mistakes will not always be glaring or obvious; this will hopefully add some depth to all our understanding of fashion.

Let’s outline how this process is going to work.

Goal(s): We’ll begin with the overarching fashion goal which the outfit intends to achieve.

Pieces: Here I’ll list the pieces of the outfit, and purchase information (if I know it)

Pictures: Pictures of the outfit will go here, preceding the discussion.

Victories: We’ll then discuss how the pieces work individually, and together, to achieve the goal.

Failures: Next, we consider what parts of the outfit detract from the overall effect, and why. Some (but certainly not all) of these will be intentional.

Comments: If anyone, including the photographer, makes comments about the outfit, they’ll be recorded here (anonymously if I only overhear them).

Credit: If the photographer wishes to be named, I’ll think him/her here.

As is my standard, this page will also become a linking portal for all things Outfit Analysis.

Outfit Analysis: 7.11.8

Challenging the Norm 4: Belts and Ties

2008-06-30T20:52:00.007-04:00

Many of us are used to substitutions in our daily lives, especially when two things appear quite similar. Butter is swapped out for the equally yellow fat, margarine, a knife works just as well as a pair of scissors in opening a bag, and the generic acetaminophen tablets work just as well as Tylenol.

Substitutions in fashion are less common, since most pieces of clothing are markedly different in some way (otherwise, what would be the point of shopping). Occasionally, however, we can exploit some symmetries which allow us to utilize elements of our wardrobe in new ways. This brings us to today’s substitution items; belts and ties.

Ties and belts have a number of similarities:

Thin, nearly rectangular shape
Approximately the same length
Fastened in some way (buckle or knot)

Thus, I am (as always), motivated to mess around with this and switch things up. The two obvious questions:

Can we use a tie as a belt?
Can we use a belt as a tie?

After some research, I’ve found that the answer to the first question is “almost always,” and the answer to the second question is “with the right type of belt, and some modifications.” Let’s start with the easy one:

Using a Tie as a Belt

My first inclination was to find someway to fold the tie along the long direction to make the wide end fit inside the belt loop, but this seemed more damaging than just sliding it through the loop. As you can see here, it only cinches the tie briefly, allowing the full width to return for the majority of the belt:

Instead, we just pull the tie around through the belt loops, tightening all the way through until both ends are secured near a loop. It must be mentioned that the tie doesn’t have nearly the same fastening power as an actual belt, and thus is best worn with pants that don’t need a belt to fit well. As you can see here, starting the tie in the standard first belt loop leads to having a lot of the wide part off to the side:

Thus, I recommend beginning at the second loop; for most standard ties this brings the wide part to the center (if you want it there). You could, of course, do other things with the loose end, but that’s up to you!

While this doesn’t seem to damage the ties in any way, I’d have to imagine wearing one in this fashion is more demanding than as a necktie. You may not want to use your most expensive ties for this purpose (then again, maybe you do, just a warning).

Using a Belt as a Tie

The more difficult endeavor approaches. The work, however, can be done, with some minor modifications.

To begin, the ends of most belts to not appear very tie-like, but more rectangular (or possibly slightly rounded), though they do have the approximate width of a skinny tie. It is an easy hack to make the belt more triangular (or some exotic shape), and I’d imagine this wouldn’t detract from its value as a belt, but the choice is yours.

Now, for the actual “tying,” we begin with a small loop around the collar, bringing the belt buckle to the point where the standard tie knot would rest, right in the indentation above the breastbone and between the collarbones:

The long end should then be fed through the buckle, keeping it as straight as possible down the center of the shirt.

This is where you have to decide whether to create another hole in the belt at this location (one won’t be there, unless your neck is waist-sized), or to leave the belt loose. Either works, since there isn’t nearly as much tension in the belt as when worn on pants.

The last hurdle is the likely excessive length of the long end. You probably don’t wish to cut off a few inches, as this could ruin the belt’s utility as… a belt. Other options are to fold it under and fasten it (not recommended since it will be quite bulky), or flip the long end through the loop created by the short end of the belt (almost like a real tie). This will prove difficult given the twisting required by the strip of the belt.

Or, you could use a buckle with two hoops, like this belt from Old Navy, which facilitates easy looping and tying to adjust length.

There you have it, a strange reversal which could potentially double your belt count, and maybe add a few to the tie count (I’d have to say the ties make better belts than the belts make ties), while adding a lot to your originality and creativity.

Always Another Way

2008-06-30T00:27:00.005-04:00

…there’s always another way. Obscure references to the Matrix aside, the words ring true. We make so many choices in fashion (whether we realize them or not), that there is almost always another way to achieve a desired effect, to wear a particular piece of clothing, or to put an outfit together.

Often, the other ways are not particularly effective, or produce undesirable effects. For example, you could wear your shoes on the wrong feet, but it probably wouldn’t feel too comfortable. However, if we free our minds up a bit, we can find reversals, switches, and modifications which are new, interesting, and effective. It's a nice way to challenge the norm.

Today, we’re going to consider a very simple change to a very common outfit pattern. Consider a short-sleeved polo shirt, showing the undershirt underneath. This “look,” deservedly or undeservedly, carries the connotation of being “preppy” and “clean-cut.” Based on those connotations alone, the pair can easily be used to satisfy some simple fashion goals.

To look preppy or clean-cut (obviously).
To bring a slight amount of formality to a casual or athletic outfit.
To appear simultaneously youthful and mature (as the outfit is prevalent among college students).

Our work here will most directly affect the first goal, but it also explores some additional goals.

So how do we construct such an outfit? We’d probably find an undershirt which works well with the color of the polo, slip it on, then add the polo, unbuttoning enough to see some of the color contrast, right?

Not today.

This time, we put the polo on first (if you insist, you could wear an additional undershirt underneath, though you might start to look puffy), followed by the undershirt, making sure to fold the collar of the polo over the undershirt. Hmm, quite a striking effect. What have we accomplished here?

By using a darker colored undershirt (as we have here), we provide a strong contrast to the lighter colors of polo (pastel-ier is often equated with preppier). By being frugal with the area we provide to the “important” color, we intensify its presence. We also channel a secondary prep look, in which the dress shirt collar is folded over a sweater. In this way, we have multiple dimensions of the prep look, giving the final product a preppier impression overall.

Further, we bring a formal idea (collar over shirt), to a casual idea (short-sleeves), something which is not often seen, and is thus interesting. Consequently, one nice effect is the ability of the polo collar to make a very casual undershirt or tee shirt seem more formal.

This technique is also useful for purely practical means. Have a badly wrinkled polo, or one with a noticeable stain? Wear it underneath an undershirt, revealing only the collar. It can also help reign in strong colors or patterns, like this metallic silver polo.

Before, I'm not pleased.

After, it's much better.

One caveat is sleeve length. We should be careful to ensure that the polo’s sleeves to not extend too far beyond the undershirt sleeves (not much more than half an inch), otherwise we risk losing intentionality, as there will be an awkward mismatch in length. A slightly longer polo sleeve does, however, provide additional points of color contrast, which may be desirable.

So, before you go through the motions in your morning dress, stop to consider what could be done differently, because there is always another way.

Practical Post 2: Destroy to Gain

2008-06-23T18:28:00.003-04:00

In our zeal to break the mold, to come up with something unusual and new, we can often get so excited, so worked up, that we end up doing something rash, wasteful, or inefficient.

I almost committed such a mistake today when coming up with an improvement on my Braille shirt. One shortcoming of the first incarnation was that, although the shirt had Braille characters on it, it could not be read as Braille, since there were only visual markings, no tactile ones! My first (admittedly very reasonable) thoughts were to either use fabric paint or to adhere some objects to the shirt to provide the characteristic raised bumps.

Let’s step back and look at the math here, since this is something a bit more permanent than the washable sharpie. Say I decided to apply Duke blue fabric paint to a plain black tee shirt.

Losses: 1 plain black tee shirt
Gains: 1 black and blue Braille shirt
Total: No net change in number of shirts

Then I came up with a different approach. What if, instead of creating raised bumps, I created tactile contrast by cutting holes in the shirt, revealing the Braille characters by recession? Certainly, this would be just as easy to read visually (if the circles are large enough), and for such a short message, just as easy to read by touch (I’d imagine that for a large piece of text, it would be difficult to read “inverted” Braille).

Then, I could wear the shirt with holes over any other color (black would defeat the purpose) to create the Braille effect in a number of ways. Suppose I own N different colors of tee shirt (besides the black base). Let’s look at the math now:

Losses: 1 plain black tee shirt
Gains: N different colors of Braille shirt
Total: N-1 new shirts (technically I’m wearing two shirts)

This looks a lot more effective to me. Don’t forget to step back and think about the process you use to achieve fashion goals. There are often multiple ways to get the same (or similar) results, and they’re not always equal.

Another Norm Challenger: LittleMissMatched

2008-06-19T20:18:00.002-04:00

You never wear mismatched socks, right? Right. How could you? It'd be embarrasing! What if someone saw your fashion oversight?!

Sounds like norm-based thinking to me. Of course, I'm guilty of it as well, we all are (unless you don't match your socks, on purpose).

Well, the people behind LittleMissMatched got their collective minds beyond all that. The idea follows my four-step norm-busting process in straightforward splendor:

Almost everyone wears matched socks.
People don't have to wear matched socks.
It's easy to not wear matched socks, all I need are two different socks.
Hooray, I'm wearing mismatched socks.

That's all well and good on an individual level. I could have "shattered the fashion world" tomorrow morning by walking out in gloriously contrasting socks. Except nobody would have cared. The genius, the limiting step, is convincing other people to do it (thus leading to profit).

This happenened in two steps. First, they designed some killer socks. All of them are fun, interesting, and well designed with respect to color and pattern. Ok. I'll still take them in pairs please.

The big idea is understanding why people don't wear mismatched socks, and finding a way to circumvent that mindset. Mismatched socks, when occuring unintentionally, are bad because they reflect a lack of care, a lack of intentionality on the part of the wearer. Often, it's just a red stripe that betrays us; clearly we were so cavalier about our footwear that we didn't bother to notice.

How does LittleMissMatched take advantage of this? They remove "accidental" from our vocabulary. The socks (which come in mismatched sets of three) are so vibrantly different from one another, that you'd literally have to be blind to accidentally wear them. Nobody in their right mind, seeing someone come down the street with a blue and red striped sock and a yellow and purple polka dotten one, could think that it was an accident. LittleMissMatched has allowed people to increase their intentionality, to utilize an oft forgotten garment to make a statement. That is why people buy from them. Not only have they challenged the norm themselves, they make it easier for their consumers to do so to, and thus they sell.

Goal: Challenging the Norm

2008-06-17T16:00:00.008-04:00

The fashion perspective of the everyday person is often normative, in that what is worn by the masses, or some large subset thereof, becomes the model upon which fashion judgments are based. The evidence is found all around us:

Specific garments go dormant for years, decades at a time, such as bell-bottomed jeans. There’s something very Tipping Point about this phenomenon.

Countries, even states, and even regions within states have distinctive fashion cultures, and these fashion cultures are rarely breached. Ask a US high school student if they’ve seen someone wear traditional Indian clothing. Not just at school. Ever.

The modern business workplace is a “hotbed” of fashion homogeny. Whatever the norm found, be it formal businesswear, business casual, or completely casual, you’ll see a remarkable lack of variation in most corporate environments.

The reasons, too, are abundant:

We’re often limited in what we can purchase by the stores around us, though this is starting to change. Until online shopping becomes commonplace, the majority of people in a region will be buying from the same subset of stores, and thus, the same subset of clothes. This means you are inundated with images of a specific subset of the fashion world, making it difficult to judge against other images.

We really don’t have any control over what gets put in stores. This is important, as it makes our judgment selective rather than constructive. While the fashion designers get to make judgments via creation of garments, thus in theory judging based upon all fashions they can imagine, we only have the ability to judge among their offerings.

We’re naturally attuned to “follow the crowd” for evolutionary reasons. To say that we eat because we see others eat would be a misinterpretation of biology, but to say we follow the herd because they know how to get food would be more reasonable. When we see others wear clothing and receive positive attention (or avoid negative attention), we naturally make note of this, influencing our own thoughts and judgments. Then, when a large group of people wears similar clothing, all to safe effect, it becomes easy to follow suit. After all, deviation is inherently risky.

Sure, deviation from the norm is inherently risky, but it’s a lot riskier for the fashion designers, isn’t it? That’s why they get paid to move fashion norms, to create deviations, because if they’re not accepted, it’s more than a minor embarrassment, it’s millions of dollars on the line.

Fortunately, our risks are much less frightening. When we make a fashion deviation (unless you’re a super-celebrity or something), the worst that can happen is that a stranger or a friend makes a snarky comment about it. Maybe they’ll make fun of you about it the next day. Aw. Thus, I often set about achieving the following goal:

Goal: Challenging the Norm

Utilize my clothing and fashion to deliberately go against the current norm or to defy expectations, while remaining within what I personally perceive as aesthetic.

In less rigor, do something unusual and unexpected, but that you still think looks good! The process probably isn’t as hard as you think. As a starting point, here’s a step-by-step method which I’ll illustrate using my first example in this series:

Come up with a simple fact about the majority of clothes. Often, the more general, the better.

Determine the logical opposite of this statement.

See if it is practically feasible to execute this opposite. This will likely require you pick a specific implementation of (2). If possible, proceed to (4). If not, return to (1).

Execute said opposite.

Use your common sense to find examples which you can actually implement. For example, the following would not be a good choice:

Most jeans are not diamond-encrusted.

Jeans could be diamond-encrusted. (Proof)

I do not have thousands of dollars to encrust a pair of jeans. I also lack the equipment to securely fasten diamonds to denim. I should try again.

How about an example that I came up with and executed in less than twenty minutes?

Most shirts with words are in English. Generalize: most shirts with words are written in a spoken language.

A shirt could have content written in Braille.

Yes, this is feasible. All I need is knowledge of the Braille alphabet, a blank shirt, and a silver sharpie.

Done (for those who can’t be bothered to translate, it says DUKE):

Again, less than twenty minutes from conception to completion (if you don’t count drying time). I notice that you can see the results of a previous design faintly underneath. I didn't feel like washing the shirt again before putting this together. Anyway, the effect isn’t earth-shattering, but it’s certainly interesting. I’ve got a few more ideas for this goal on deck, as I complete them, I’ll post links to the associated posts here as well:

LittleMissMatched
Always Another Way
Belts and Ties

Challenge the norm yourself, and unleash your inner designer (we all have one).

Color Theory Video 1: Basics and Definitions

2008-06-13T19:08:00.003-04:00

First piece of video content for fashionablemathematician!

Head on over to youtube to check out the first video in my color theory series (which closely follows the blog posts).

Color Theory Basics (1)

You can, of course, read the associated post:

Color Theory Chapter 1: Basics and Definitions

or go to the color theory portal page:

Color Theory Introduction

Color Theory Chapter 9: Analogous Combinations

2008-06-06T10:40:00.002-04:00

You may be surprised that we’ve waited so long to discuss combinations of analogous colors. We saw in Chapter 5 that monochromatic outfits were relatively easy to construct, and that the results were nice. It would make sense for analogous colors to be the next step up in difficulty, but instead we moved on to complementary, then triadic and split and dual complements.

In media which utilize a small number of colors (such as logos, print design, and often fashion), we see a surprising lack of analogous colors. Consider the emblems and uniform colors for the teams in the NFL and the MLB. Of the approximately 60 teams, I count only who 4 use analogous colors in any significant way (these being the Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Oakland A’s, and Seattle Mariners). Interestingly, all four instances either use green and yellow or green and blue, though I’m not sure if there is any significance to this. Much more common are monochromatic, triadic, or complementary relations.

Now look in your own wardrobe, especially your shirts. How many of them even have multiple colors on them? Of those that do, how many use analogous colors? I’d guess that the number will be fewer than you expect. I can’t say that I fully understand why this is true, but I can give a few reasons why mixing analogous colors is more difficult than imagined (note that this is much less true in art, when often in natural subjects color flows continuously, requiring the use of analogous hues).

When colors are very near each other in hue, it creates a tension because the mind wants the two colors to be the same. This is similar to the effect described in Chapter 5 with adjacent blocks of similar (monochromatic) colors.
Given that color changes in fashion are usually abrupt (edges), we have a disconnect with natural systems, in which analogous colors usually flow continuously, while contrasting colors produce edges. This means that we may tend to expect edges to be associated with higher contrasts, such as triadic or complementary colors.
The contrasts created by analogous colors are often too small to be interesting, while the similarities are also too small to exude coherence.

So how can we hope to use analogous colors effectively? From the above we see that at the core of the analogous problem is the indecision between coherence and contrast. We must manage these two ideals when putting together. In either case, the key is intentionality. Our choices must make it clear that we’ve introduced the colors for a specific purpose, either contrast or coherence.

We’ve already looked at two ways to introduce contrast into a set of analogous colors; split and dual complements. We can form a split complement from a pair of analogous colors by adding the complement to the center of the two colors. Similarly, we can create a dual complement simply by adding the complements of each color. Thus, we see that complementary relations are often not so much removed from analogous ones. Once the split or dual complement is set up, we can proceed as in Chapter 7.

How else can we introduce contrast? If you’ve been following along, you probably have an idea about where I’ll go next; value and saturation. Adding a second type of contrast increases the perceived “distance” between the colors, making the juxtaposition seem all the more intentional. Recall our ideas about this from before, typically we want the color with higher saturation to have lower value. Our other standard trick is to utilize proportions. By giving one color a significantly greater intensity, but a significantly smaller area, we can draw attention to the color, and the intention of our contrast.

We’ll that is wonderful. Now let’s tackle cohesion. Again our goal is to make it apparent that we want these two similar colors together! Now, if we include a color once, it might be an accident, but what if we do it again? And again? And again? Each repetition of a particular color solidifies our intentionality, and the legitimacy of the color in the context of the entire out fit. This can be achieved without much difficulty. Try a shirt with a particular color as the figure or accent (perhaps as the collar or a stripe) and match it with a cloth belt. Bonus points for successfully using a nonstandard (read: interesting) belt (for example, a red shirt with orange design, orange belt with khaki to dark brown shorts or pants).

Another method of introducing cohesion is to invite continuity (as in nature) by ordering analogous colors in a logical sequence. This works especially well if you simultaneously decrease the value as we progress down. Consider a progression from yellow to green. We could begin with a yellow undershirt of light value, layered underneath a yellow-green polo shirt (making sure the undershirt is clearly visible). A pair of dark green slacks and brown shoes (and belt) complete the look. Everything flows nicely, and the matching of hue and value flows give significant coherence to the end result. As an advanced exercise, one could consider mixing the two above approaches by using a yellow belt as well. This probably requires a closer look at the colors, but certainly can be done.

Finally, as we mentioned before, analogous colors often occur naturally. They are thus very appropriate for clothing which depicts natural things, such as images or prints. This method, of course, requires significantly less thought, but do not neglect the relation of the colors in the rest of your outfit.

Well, hopefully a good start into utilizing yet another category of colors in your fashion lives!

Color Theory Chapter 8: The Intermediary Contrast

2008-06-02T22:20:00.003-04:00

Just a brief lesson this time (we’re getting into specifics territory). Often we want to use a particular color combination, but just find that the resulting color contrast simply does not work. Fortunately, this is not the end for our color friends! Today we’ll look at how to downplay a contrast, making it more appealing, through the addition of more contrasts.

Let’s think about why this should work. If there is only a single contrast in a visual field (in this case typically a hue contrast with high intensity), then the eye will tend to focus on it. Providing a second contrast (especially of a different variety, say value or saturation, or even a hue lying between the initial two hues) takes attention away from the initial contrast, often making it seem less strong.

The concept is best illustrated with a specific example. Suppose that I want to utilize a blue-orange color combination. Since the colors are complementary, we’re going to be dealing with a very strong hue contrast. Worse still, I have nothing orange with low saturation or value, it’s all high intensity stuff! It seems like we’re headed straight for an eyesore! Not so, thanks to a light brown and a gray addition. A beige collar and gray stripe on this orange shirt allow us to safely pair it with a navy sweater, as follows: (visible despite me playing Guitar Hero)

The shirt provides a surprising number of additional contrasts:

Strong value contrast between the sweater and the collar.
Hue contrast between the sweater and the collar.
Saturation contrast between the orange and gray stripes.
Saturation contrast between the gray stripes and the sweater.

Immediately, we see a reduction in strain on the blue-orange hue contrast. The addition of a few other color elements has given the visual system a lot to look at, mediating the power of the complementary color contrast, making it an interesting, rather than overbearing, part of the entire look.

Similar methods can be used to reconcile many other color combinations. It's quite helpful, especially if you've got an item of clothing that just doesn't seem to go with anything else. Often, adding another layer of color is all it takes to make an outfit work.

Color Theory Chapter 7: Split and Dual Complements

2008-05-30T17:10:00.005-04:00

Having tackled complementary colors in our last article, let’s move on to the related topics of split and dual complements. We’ll see that the tools required to utilize these objects are very similar to those we developed for complementary colors. Later on, we’ll see that there is also a relationship to analogous colors.

Recall that a set of split-complementary colors consists of three hues; a base color and a pair of colors symmetrically placed about the complement of the base. A set of dual-complementary colors consists of four hues; two pairs of complimentary colors. We also have a special case of split-complementary colors, called triadic colors, in which the colors are equally spaced so that any of the three colors could serve as the base.

Note that by adding additional distinct hues, we are forced to increase the total number of contrasts in our outfits. This is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing, but one should certainly be cognizant of it. It would be difficult both to create a very simple dual-complementary outfit, or to successfully add additional layers of complexity to a split-complementary outfit.

In working with dual-complementary colors, the name of the game is contrast-minimization (in the sense of number of contrasts). If have the four colors going everywhere, interacting with each other all over the place, the visual system will be overwhelmed with contrasts.

One method for doing this is to manage proportions, another is to introduce significant white or black space. If we allot one color a large portion of the visual field, while giving the other three colors significantly smaller portions, we can decrease the frequency and intensity of the contrasts. Consider the dual-complementary colors blue, red, green and orange. These are seemingly difficult to piece together in a subdued fashion, as we saw above. Begin by segregating all of the blue to the pants, say a pair of navy slacks. To minimize the presence of the other colors, choose a white dress shirt with a red, orange, and green vertical stripe (I admit, such a shirt may be difficult to find, as forays into four-color outfits do not occur so often as to be very profitable). This minimizes the overall intensity of the contrast, though it is still perfectly visible. The added subtlety is another good way to generate interest in the clothing (always a reasonable fashion goal).

More outgoing combinations of dual-complementary colors (and schemes with even more colors) can be achieved, but there are so many variables involved that I can’t really give a framework to them. My best suggestion is to try things out and see what you like. I’ll be posting many specific examples in the future, from which you should be able to gain some intuition.

Let’s move on to the less complex system of split-complementary colors. Given that we’re only working with three colors, it’s much easier to combine them, even in a single region of the body. For instance, we could pair a blue suit jacket with a yellow-orange shirt and red-orange tie (the pants would of course match the suit jacket). Especially when the pair involved revolves closely around the complement of the base color, we can follow similar patterns to those of complementary colors. One important caveat here is to ensure that the base color has the majority of the visual field. If one of the near-complements dominates the field, it will still contrast nicely with the base, but its interaction with the other near complement may seem like a mistake. It will be difficult to perceive the color difference, and will likely appear as if one intending to simply use the dominant color.

Now, when dealing with split-complements with less overall contrast (such as triadic colors), we have a bit more freedom. Given the decreased overall contrast, and the inherent symmetry, we attain a nice balance of contrast. I find that if we corral the saturations and values sufficiently, nearly any combination of triadic or near triadic colors will work. Again, our work is made easier if we relegate one of the colors to accent level, giving it only a small portion of the visual field.

One particularly nice application is to apply triadic or similar split-compliments to a pastel color scheme. The high value and relatively mild saturation, again paired with the color symmetry, gives a nice amount of coherence, while maintaining a subtle contrast. Start with a pair of jeans with a light-blue wash. Then, the triadic split-complements are yellow and red. Now, red generally has a fairly strong intensity, so we’ll subdue it by significantly increasing the value while decreasing its proportion by choosing a soft pink undershirt. The pop of the outfit comes from a yellow polo, with all buttons undone to ensure that the pink shirt is not lost in the relative strength of the yellow.

Go forth, and experiment with multi-color outfits yourselves! The best way to really understand these concepts is to see them in action. Try on a few outfits you know will look terrible, by then reason out why they look terrible. The field knowledge you gain is invaluable in building a color intuition, which becomes more and more important as we increase the complexity of outfits. Good luck!

Color Theory Chapter 6: Complementary Colors and Contrast

2008-05-29T00:12:00.006-04:00

As we’ve discussed earlier, the greatest hue contrast we can create is with complimentary colors. Thus, applying complimentary colors to an outfit is going to be an efficient way to generate contrast, providing some visual punch and complexity. In this post, I’m going to go over some basic rules for using complementary colors, as well as utilize complementary colors to achieve another fashion goal.

Many combinations of complementary colors simply create too much contrast, putting strain on the visual system. This, of course, leads to a poor aesthetic interpretation, which leads the viewer to not like your style. If you don’t believe me, take a look at a few examples.

Worse still, complementary colors can often create Itten’s simultaneous contrast, an even more unpleasant visual experience. Therefore, we must find ways to appropriately bring complementary colors together, highlighting the good aspects of the contrast (interesting combination of hues, sharp edges, grabs attention), while mediating the bad aspects (simultaneous contrast, excessive vibrance, visual strain).

Let’s revisit some of the examples of bad use of complimentary colors from above. One similarity between them is consistently intensity, coming from moderate to high value and very high saturation. We see that even having one such color is generally unpleasant.

How about some examples in which the colors have decreased saturation, especially those which have medium value levels?

This is certainly an improvement, but let’s take it a little bit further. Our last step will be to introduce a second high contrast, this time in value. In general, we’ll make the color with the higher saturation have the lower (darker) value, in accordance with the above results. As we see, this yields some nice results:

We thus have a useable set of rules for applying complimentary colors:

First, ensure that at least one color does not have excessive intensity (characterized by medium to high value and very high saturation), and if possible, make sure both colors have a reasonable intensity.
Decrease saturation as value increases. In general, the darker color should have significantly more saturation than the lighter.
Introduce a strong secondary contrast (typically with value) to mediate the strong hue contrast.

Why don’t we look at an application? This time our goal will be to generate interest in our inner layers of clothing. We often lose much of the value of certain pieces of clothing when worn underneath other layers. As I mentioned in Practical Post 1 – Silver Sharpie, graphic tee shirts are wasted when they’re design is hidden beneath a polo shirt or a sweater; things we wear rather often! It then behooves us to generate interest in these inner layers, both to extract additional value from them and just to generate interest in what we are wearing in general.

A simple way to do this is with a polo shirt and undershirt of complementary colors. In both cases I’m wearing black pants, though in each case the outfit would work with brown or blue pants. I decided on black since we haven’t covered analogous or triadic colors in detail yet. We have two examples, a yellow polo with purple undershirt and a green polo with red undershirt.

Note how attention is brought to the neckline, and therefore the undershirt, especially in the green/red case. Can you figure out why the effect is diminished in the yellow/purple example? It relates back to the ideas of proportion and intensity discussed in Chapter 4; the yellow is both more intense and occupies a (much) larger portion of the visual field, making it difficult for the purple to attract attention. This example shows that for this particular application, it would probably be better to use a purple polo and a yellow undershirt. Although it is not always necessary (or optimal), a fourth “guideline” (not quite a rule) is the following:

When there is a large contrast in value and proportion, make the larger proportioned color the one with lower value.

We can apply this rule to achieve the same goal in a dressier setting. Here we pair a white and green striped dress shirt with a maroon sweater, creating a very nice contrast. The difference in hues is mediated by the difference in values, and the large proportion of the dark value allows the accent color to draw attention to the neckline and face. The stripes add to the interest in the inner layers as well!

Accents and manipulations like these are beginning to fill our sartorial tackle-box. We can already see more complicated and interesting outfits emerging! Our quest continues next time when we consider split and dual complements. Until then, embrace your natural contrast. (If you don’t like that, you’re welcome to insert your own sendoff.)

Color Theory Chapter 5: Monochromatic Combinations and Coherence

2008-05-27T13:47:00.005-04:00

Alrighty, let’s take on some actual fashion goals. Today we’ll look at how monochromatic color combinations can be utilized to achieve a common fashion goal:

Coherence

We say that an outfit if coherent if all of its pieces follow some theme, combining to form a singular visual image. Basing an outfit around a single hue seems a pretty reasonable way to accomplish this. But why should we desire a coherent look? Well, it stems from the most nebulous fashion advice each of us has ever been given: things should match. Of course, this seems like we’re just passing off the question; why should things match? This is the real heart of the goal of coherence.

Coherence tends to imply that thought was placed into the construction of the outfit. It’s a simple application of the concept of entropy; things with order are much less likely to occur by chance. This means that what people see your outfit, they will tend to infer (subconsciously in all likelihood) that you spent some time “designing” the outfit. A reasonable conclusion (though not necessarily true) is that you care about your appearance, and this reflects well upon you. Further, in general it is easier to create an attractive outfit with like colors than with high contrast colors. The rewards are not as high (in that most people expect your clothes to match), but nor are the risks. Especially for beginners, this is a great fashion goal to begin with, as it will ensure at the very least a presentable style and build confidence in mixing colors and articles of clothing.

Now, we’re only looking at monochromatic combinations, which makes our job a bit easier, but certainly not every such combination will be effective. First, let’s recall what a monochromatic combination can consist of. Monochromatic colors are those with a very close relationship, with no restrictions on value or saturation. This means we have a base color, from light to dark, gray to vibrant, including white, black and most grays (as in general, it’s difficult to discern the true hue of a gray). We’ll also allow (but not rely on) browns, especially dark ones, since they are seemingly hue neutral, (this is, of course, not technically true, with most browns leaning towards orange or red).

Before we embark on construction, we should probably consider a few things that just won’t work, right off the bat. Rarely does an outfit composed of exactly the same color work. The pieces of clothing tend to run together as one entity, often obscuring the human form beneath. We also lose a bit of the “implied thought,” given the complete lack of complexity. Similarly, try to avoid using two colors which are very nearly identical, especially if they appear adjacent to each other in the visual field. When colors are almost the same, but not quite the same, it seems like a mistake, that the intent was to use the same color, decreasing the overall coherence. The name of the game is intentionality. The effect can occur when the near colors appear in different parts of the outfit as well, but it is not nearly as drastic. Finally, when creating a monochromatic outfit (for that matter, any outfit), there should not be an overabundance (really, even a dominance) of very powerful, bright colors. For example, an orange-monochromatic outfit, using consistently high value or saturation, would be a bad call. The problem is overloading the visual system. Strong colors are best taken in reasonable doses, otherwise they either lose their effect or create an unpleasant viewing experience.

Excellent. Let’s put together two monochromatic outfits, one casual, the other a bit more dressy. We’ll start with a color most people have an abundance of clothing in: blue.

Casual: We begin with a staple piece of clothing, the denim jean. I’m using a relatively dark wash jean, which will closely match a pair of blue, white, and gray sneakers, but contrast with a shirt with very high value. The shirt has a dominant color which is nearly white (a very, very light blue), with thin vertical blue stripes, also with high value. Note how we’ve placed the weight of the outfit, the darker colors, at the bottom, forming a base of sorts. Now, the undershirt is a more standard blue, not quite as dark as the jean. This provides another layer of complexity. Buttoning the shirt about halfway, we safely separate the two darker colors, creating some nice contrast. If we were feeling a bit more adventurous, the undershirt would be a good choice to stray from the monochromatic scheme (perhaps with a light pink, matching in value but contrasting in hue).

We can add a nice Duke football hat as well, since the colors remain analogous.

A closer look at the shirt and undershirt.

Finally, a closer look at the denim and the shoe.

Dress: Now begin with a pair of navy blue slacks. In more formal situations like this, we need a belt and “nice” shoes. Brown is the way to go here (recall the problems we had pairing navy and black), so we use a simple brown belt with matching shoes. The socks will also be navy, as a light color would create unwanted jarring visual attention at foot level. Let’s pair the navy slacks with a distinguished looking gray dress shirt, tucked in, and buttoned nearly to the top. Underneath is the flair, a light (in value), bright blue undershirt which brings energy to the overall look, without being overbearing, or detracting from the formality of the rest of the clothing. Pictures here are forthcoming (I need a new pair of navy slacks, having torn a hole in the knee last semester!).

So there we have it, our first real foray into outfit construction, and look what we can do with just a single color! Try some of these techniques out on your own, using some other colors. Good places to start are green and red, both of which work well with blacks or browns. Good luck!

Color Theory Chapter 4: Proportions and Intensities

2008-05-22T16:24:00.004-04:00

This time, we’ll look at how varying the proportion and intensity of colors in a visual design can change how both the individual colors and the entire visual field appear. We often call the different ways a color can appear (in context of other surrounding colors) different “readings” of that color.

To interpret these phenomena, we borrow from the printing world. We denote the color with the largest amount of area the ground, or the dominant color. Those with a smaller proportion of the visual field are called subdominant colors. Typically, the color with the smallest (still significant) portion of the visual field has high contrast with the ground, and is called the figure or the accent.

Now, in general, the ground color will carry the most weight in determining the characteristics of the overall visual field. For example, if the dominant color has low saturation, the surrounding colors will appear grayer, as if they also have lower saturation. Conversely, if the dominant color is very vibrant, it will seem to raise the saturation of the surrounding colors. This is especially true of the subdominant colors; in some cases the effect may be opposite for accent colors, especially if they have a very strong contrast with the ground. Here are a few examples using the above colors:

Let’s apply this to a practical example. Suppose that I’m wearing a black suit (black jacket, pants, socks and shoes), with a white dress shirt, and a red tie. Here, black would be the ground, red would be the subdominant color, and white would be the accent (though one could argue that the red should also be an accent, I label it subdominant because of how it behaves with respect to the black, as we’ll see). I recommend taking these (or similar) items out and looking for the effects yourself as well. First, put on just the shirt and tie. Study the color of the tie for a moment, then put on the jacket and study its color again. You should notice (unless you have an especially light or vibrant red tie) that the tie now appears darker, given the drastic change in dominant color value from white to black. Now, this is a very common combination to wear, and it works well because of the deliberate strong contrast between all three elements. The contrast between white and black creates sharp edges which frame a flash of very visible color. The red is more striking if it is of slightly high value and of high saturation. This contrast is not accidental, and in some respects, not optional. Let’s see what happens if we neglect the effects of the ground color on our accents:

Take off the red tie, and put on a dark blue one. Now there is no ambiguity over whether the color of the tie is subdominant or accent, given the lack of contrast (due to the lower value). Again observe the effect of changing the ground color from white to black by removing and replacing the jacket. Now, the already dark tie appears even darker, approaching, but not quite reaching the color of the jacket. This destroys the “clean” edges we had before, introducing a region of ambiguity where the tie meets the jacket. The result is not terrible, thanks to the region of white which remains behind a portion of the tie, but much of the excitement generated from the red tie is lost. We also have created a bit of visual confusion between the dark blue and black. This is the same reason that it is generally a bad idea to wear black shoes with navy trousers. Well, how can we remedy this? Consider what made the first example successful; clearly defined edges and strong contrasts. This generated a very clean look with a region of visual excitement (which actually leads the eye upwards towards the face: bonus). The problem with the navy tie was the lack of contrast between the ground and the subdominant color. Let’s increase the value of the tie while maintaining high saturation, approaching something like a sky blue (despite my moral hatred for the color). This maintains a strong contrasts with the white (given the hue), and creates a stronger contrast with the dominant black, owing to the increased value, leading to a much more vibrant, exciting look.

Now, these principles can be applied to many situations, and the available contrasts are, as I said last time, nearly limitless. Keeping both contrasts and proportions in mind when designing a look will both allow you to avoid bad results from seemingly safe combinations as well as create interesting and attractive designs from unusual combinations.

Color Theory Chapter 3: Simple Color Combinations

2008-05-18T14:00:00.003-04:00

Now, in most cases, we tend to wear multiple colors at one time, usually multiple hues as well. The major exceptions I can see are some swimsuits, wedding dresses, and the occasional suit, but with standard clothing, footwear, and accessories, it’s really quite rare to see an outfit with absolutely no color variation. In this piece, we’re going to look at basic relationships between colors, which will become the building blocks for creating outfits which utilize colors well.

We looked at a few basic relationships back in Chapter 1: analogous colors and complementary colors. Let’s add two new designations, monochromatic and triadic colors, giving us a near continuum of hue contrast.

Monochromatic Colors technically no hue difference. All variations are in value and saturation. For our purposes, we’ll consider monochromatic to be any group of hues which are very close to each other (that is, not closer to any adjacent primary, secondary, or tertiary color). This is because, in general, two different pieces of clothing rarely have exactly the same hue.

Analogous Colors exhibit slightly more hue variation, in which a color is combined with neighboring hues on the color wheel, with any value or saturation changes. The small variation in hue contributes a relatively weak contrast.

Triadic Colors are sets of three colors equal spaced around the color wheel (that is 120 degrees apart). This generates more contrast, though there is balance given the equal positioning (we’ll see that this is a special case of a split-complementary relationship). In general, triadic colors do not seem to be strongly related to one another, yet harmony can still exist because of the strong mutual balance.

Complementary Colors provide the maximum possible hue variation, being directly opposite each other on the color wheel (180 degrees of separation). The colors are in a sense, mirror images of each other. In fact, if one stares at a high saturation block of color for a while, removing the color often leaves an afterimage of the complementary color. The large variation creates the strongest hue contrast possible.

Now we can extend the idea of a complementary color to a pair of colors which is symmetric placed about a true complement. For example, the complement of green is red, so that red-orange and red-purple would be a pair of colors equally spaced from the complement of green.

Split-Complementary Colors are sets of three colors, composed of a base color and a pair of colors equally spaced about the complement of the base color. We see that triadic colors are a special case, in which any of the three colors could act as the base color of the construction.

Dual-Complementary Colors are sets of four colors, composed of two complementary color pairs. Also called tetradic colors.

This essentially exhausts our methods of hue variation. Any further combination of colors can likely be characterized as one of the above or a combination of the above. The likelihood of using more than four or five colors is also small. Since we plan on using multiple colors in creating outfits, we then need to examine various types of contrast. In truth, all color combinations create some level of contrast, and managing these visual contrasts and their effects is at the center of color design.

Our work differs from print-based color theory in that we often do not have a particular figure which is to take the dominant position against some background visual field. More often, we have a set of adjacent visual fields, sometimes solid color, sometimes patterned.

Johannes Itten (author of the Art of Color) cites seven different contrasts which can be used in color theory:

Contrast of Saturation: As it sounds, this is the contrasting of colors with varying levels of saturation. More effective when the colors share monochromatic or analogous hues (in other cases, it may seem as if the hues are monochromatic or analogous, given our general difficulty in perceiving the hue of many grays).

Contrast of Value: Similarly, this is the contrasting of colors with different value levels. Can be used with different hues or similar hues.

Contrast of Hue: This is what we discussed above, creating contrast using different “colors” on the color wheel, technically, different hues. This is typically the contrast people are most familiar and comfortable with.

Contrast of Proportion: This is the contrast associated with giving different colors unequal parts of the visual field. Different effects occur when we give areas proportional or anti-proportional to the visual weights of the colors. This will be especially important for us in taking advantage of colors.

Contrast of Complements: This is the strong contrast generated by complementary colors, which I would characterize as an example of contrast of hue, rather than another category.

Simultaneous Contrast: This occurs when borders between colors seem to vibrate. It often occurs with complementary colors or with colors with very little hue contrast, but some large value or saturation contrast. More likely to occur if the length of the boundary is large in relation to the area of the color region, such as with text.

Contrast of Warm and Cool: Essentially another specific case of hue contrast, this is the contrast of hues which are warm (reds, oranges) and cool (blues, purples). One could also consider contrast of light and heavy (color weight) and the contrast of dull and energetic (color intensity), cases of value and saturation contrast, respectively.

As we already see, beyond a few measures of contrast, we are forced to repeat ourselves. The complexity comes from the fact that these contrasts are rarely in isolation. Nearly all images exhibit each contrast to some degree, and the lack of a particular contrast can be interesting itself. This gives an immense number of “contrast profiles."

It will be our work to sift through these profiles, to find those which satisfy our fashion goals.

Color Theory Chapter 2: Effects of Individual Colors

2008-05-15T14:07:00.004-04:00

Before we consider how best to mix colors, it behooves us to understand how each particular tool we have works. All colors are not created equal, in terms of their changes as we modify saturation and value, in terms of their psychological effects, or in terms of their fitness for achieving particular fashion goals.

Color psychology isn’t exactly “hard science,” in that it isn’t a theory derived from some set of axioms. It is, however, based on at least a body of empirical evidence. Since we’re not building lasers here, I’m alright with that.

Let’s begin with a simple observation about value. Given any starting hue (and saturation), we can range from zero value (black) to maximum value (white). In our journey, we’ll pass through black, dark-“color”, regular-“color”, pastel-“color”, and finally to white. Going from dark to light in our naïve color sense, we see that the color “looks” as if it changes from heavy to light in a mass/weight sense:

Similarly, we can consider the saturation. Again, with a fixed starting hue (and value), we can range from zero saturation (gray) to maximum saturation (no gray, pure color). In this process, a single color is at first not present at all, then becomes increasingly stronger until it is a pure tone. As we pass from gray to color, we see that the image seems to transform from low energy to high energy:

Now, the hues are a wee bit more complicated. I can’t see a simple relationship in our perception of color as we move around the color wheel. If you have any theories, I’d love to hear them! This is where we move a bit further into the world of anecdotal evidence. Fortunately, as our certainty declines, so does the relative importance of the results.

One of the major difficulties in coming up with a good catalog of color psychology is the influence of cultural difference, both international and interpersonal. For example, in modern western cultures, red is the color of the devil. However, in the Middle Ages, the devil was often represented with yellow or green. Green is also believed to be very lucky in the Irish culture. I prefer the Blue Devil. We see that things can get mixed up pretty easily. For this reason, I’ll try to stick to the more universal interpretations, with the disclaimer that I am a male U.S. citizen living in the 21^st century.

Black: Black often symbolizes power or control. It’s widely regarded as a formal color (e.g. black-tie affairs). In contexts, it can mean mourning or death (funerals), or submission (priests). For our purposes, black is a weighty color that signifies power and commands respect.

White: White represents light, purity, and innocence. It is notably clean and light in weight. Other connotations include simplicity and reverence. Very much considered a summer color (via the “rule” don’t wear white after Labor Day), though it can also be very formal (especially when paired with black) as in weddings, or from the fact that the most common shirt worn with a suit/tuxedo is white.

Red: Red is likely the heaviest of the hues. Its color is very bold to the eye, though not necessary displeasing. A range of meanings include love, anger, fire, power, respect and leadership. One of the most noticeable colors, even a small amount of red is easily noticed. Photographers are rumored to carry red soda cans with them to add a flash of red to pictures. Studies have shown that red actually has a physical effect, increasing heart rate and breathing rate.

Blue: Blue is one of the most popular colors, both in and out of the fashion world. Important meanings include calm, cool, cold, confident, and loyalty. The last of these is an oft-cited reason to wear blue to job interviews. Blue can, however, be interpreted as cold (in a sad/emotional way), so we should be careful to ensure that enough energy is present in the color to avoid this (if we wish to avoid it, that is).

Yellow: We often think of yellow as a happy color, associated with sunlight and optimism. However, its hue is the most “annoying” to our visual system. This may be the reason that yellow is actually the color which makes people angriest. In general, this effect can be tempered by reducing how striking the yellow appears by choosing lower values and saturations.

Green: Conversely, green is the easiest color for the eye to accept, likely due to the abundance of it in nature. This color is associated with growth, relaxation, fertility, and vigor. Of course, we also know it can symbolize jealousy, though I think this is more figurative than literal.

Purple: Often symbolizes royalty, ergo, wealth and success. Can also refer to delicacy in light shades (high value), or sensuality in darker shades with high saturation. Given its relatively infrequent appearance in the natural world, which accounts for its connection to wealth and rarity, purple can also seem unnatural or artificial.

Orange: One of the least used colors, orange is a tempered red in terms of intensity from a purely physical perspective, but its rare use also makes it easily noticeable. Similar ties as red; anger, desire, fire, danger, autumn, earth. People often connect “brown” most closely to orange.

Brown: Element of the earth, related to nature, stability, simplicity and tradition, and dependability. A very nonoffensive color, making it a common safe choice for fashion, especially with men.

Pink: Despite being technically red, pink, which is just red with very high value, is viewed very differently. Often represents femininity, softness, spring, flowers. Emotionally can represent love, admiration or gratitude. A very peaceful color, unlike the powerful and sometimes angry “red.”

Gray: Often viewed as a lack of color like black, when in reality it is just a lack of saturation. Commonly, gray will actually be a red or a blue with very low saturation. The difference is noticeable in some cases if you hold up the gray to some red or blue items. Depending on the underlying color, there are additional “readings” of the gray, but in general it represents wisdom, respect, neutrality, formality, or balance. Also interpreted as dull or boring.

Wow, what a whirlwind! Soon we'll apply these things to the mixing of colors, and look at some general properties of color combinations, before attacking actual fashion applications (coming soon, I promise!).

Color Theory Chapter 1: Basics and Definitions

2008-05-13T23:05:00.004-04:00

Let’s begin with a basic overview of color theory. Much of the information here will be from the helpful site: http://www.worqx.com, or from the Wikipedia article on color theory. Because we are concerned with color applications to fashion, we will be considering subtractive color theory. What’s the difference?

Subtractive Color Theory begins with white, and adds colors until black is reached. The more color we add, the darker the resultant color is, until we approach black. This is applicable here, because fabrics typically begin their lives without color, and are then dyed with color, and is similar to printing or painting.

Additive Color Theory, typically used in computing and electronic color, begins with black and adds color until white is reached. Here, the more color we add, the lighter the result becomes, until we reach white. This makes sense because color monitors begin as black. The pixels are then lit up with colors, and the more color we add, the lighter the pixel appears.

The difference is important because the primary colors of the two systems are different. In subtractive color theory, the primaries are red, blue, and yellow (often in printing we consider magenta, cyan, and yellow), while in additive color theory we have red, blue and green (you might recall this from RGB values for coding colors on the internet).

Now, the primary colors (red, blue and yellow), provide a basis for creating the commonly known color wheel:

Primary Colors are given by axiom to be red, blue and yellow.

Secondary Colors are given by mixing equal parts of any pair of unique primary colors: red and blue make purple, red and yellow make orange, blue and yellow make green.

Tertiary Colors are created by mixing equal parts of any primary color and an adjacent secondary color. They are typically named according to the nomenclature primary-secondary. For example, mixing red and orange gives red-orange. Mixing red and green doesn’t produce a tertiary color, as green is not adjacent to red.

We can then define relations between colors:

Complementary Colors are those found directly across from each other on the color wheel. If we’re considering only primary and secondary colors, these are the combinations which do not form tertiary colors. Mixing these colors generally brings the overall color towards neutral (browns and grays), while juxtaposing them tends to create high contrast.

Analogous Colors are those found adjacent or nearly adjacent to each other on the color. These tend to create low contrast, and flow almost continuously from one color to another.

We could consider other angular relations between colors on the color wheel, but we’ll save that for some more specific applications (and there really isn’t that much farther to go). Let’s now consider the three aspects of a particular color:

Hue is the actual “color” of the color. One can think of this as the angular position on the color wheel (in fact, many computer programs let you define the hue as a degree value from 0 to 360).

Saturation refers to how pure the tone of a color is. More rigorously, we think of gray as being low saturation, and pure colors as being high saturation.

Value refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a color. The darker (closer to black) the color is, the lower the value.

Finally, let’s touch on the idea of warm and cool colors. I’ve not been able to find a technical reason for this, but we perceive colors like red and orange as warm, colors like blue and violet as cool. Often we see that warmer, brighter colors have a greater weight in whatever canvas we’re looking at.

Now that we’ve set ourselves up with a good range of definitions, we’re ready to start looking at how to apply color knowledge to achieve some fashion goals.

Color Theory Introduction

2008-05-10T20:22:00.009-04:00

As I stated in my initial post here, General Fashion Philosophy, one of the five things we have control over in fashion is color. This may be my favorite aspect of fashion, that is, playing with colors and their mutual interactions. Given the billions of colors that our eyes can perceive, the sartorial possibilities seem endless. Unfortunately, many people are afraid to stray from their safety nets of blacks, browns, blues and whites. Worse still, many people don’t understand even how to utilize these colors effectively. Thus, I’m going to spend an indefinite number of posts describing my thoughts on color theory, and how best to utilize colors to achieve your fashion goals.

Remember that our focus here is going to be selecting clothes (in this case, colors) with a specific purpose. I can’t tell you what purposes or goals you should have, I can only give guidance on how to achieve the goals I personally choose. I hope that you can apply the techniques I use here to your own fashion goals. Do not be intimidated by this process. In reality, it doesn’t take long to come up with a reason for what you’re wearing, nor does it take long to implement it. Plus, once you’ve designed a few outfits, they can of course be reused later on, without all of the thinking.

For those interested in the theory of colors in its own right, I must refer you to Itten’s The Art of Color. It really is the best thing out there on the subject. Even those with more ancillary interests in color (like mine) should pick up a copy. There are, of course, more basic introductions available freely on the web, which you might want to check out first, so;

I’ll keep this pst updated with links to the newest related articles both from my blog (as I crank them out) , and any other materials I find on the subject out on the web:

On fashionablemathematician:

Chapter 1: Basics and Definitions
Chapter 2: Effects of Individual Colors
Chapter 3: Simple Color Combinations
Chapter 4: Proportions and Intensities
Chapter 5: Monochromatic Combinations and Coherence
Chapter 6: Complementary Colors and Contrast
Chapter 7: Split and Dual Complements
Chapter 8: The Intermediary Contrast
Chapter 9: Analogous Combinations

Outside Links:

http://www.worqx.com
http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

In the Style of Radiohead

2008-05-09T18:30:00.005-04:00

Recently, Radiohead (one of my favorite musical groups) released their latest album In Rainbows without a record label. For free (for a limited time). They allowed fans to pay “what they felt was fair” for the album, and managed to generate one of the “best-selling” albums of the year.

Being a huge Radiohead fan, I decided to show my support for their music, as well as their eschewing of the “standard” way to produce. Thus, it was back to the drawing board again with Sharpies. After a few minutes, an upside-down pot, coffee mug, and a ruler, I came up with this attempt at a Radiohead logo.

It definitely didn’t come out perfect, but that’s kind of the point with this sometimes. Certainly a unique, yet recognizable shirt. Like a good inside joke, those who get it will appreciate it greatly. Besides, the logo looks pretty cool even if you don’t know who Radiohead is (if you are such a person, please take 5 minutes of your life and watch this). I especially like how the brown shirt combined with the scruffy black marker makes it almost look like a cave drawing. If this stuff washes out well, I think I’ll give it another shot in a few weeks, to try and nail down the proportions a little better.

Practical Post 1 - Silver Sharpie

2008-05-06T20:50:00.000-04:00

In general, graphic tee shirts are overpriced. Think about what you’re getting; a low-to-mid quality fabric with a design on it. This design is likely;

Cool and interesting, though rarely worthy of comments like, “nice shirt!”
Not beyond your own creativity level (though possibly beyond your artistic level)
Being worn by hundreds, if not thousands of other people

Now, consider what you’re using it for. Assuming it’s a shirt that you hang on to for a while, and depending on where you live, you’ll probably be wearing that shirt underneath something else 50-60% of the time. So five out of ten times you’re wearing that witty slogan (note that the effectiveness of said wit diminishes greatly with each use), it can’t be seen, and that cool upside-down tree you bought is now just a trunk at the base of your neck.

There are, of course, exceptions to this general trend. Many people enjoy wearing tee shirts that support a favorite band or sports team, there are some truly unique (and awesome) designs out there, and some of these rare gems don’t cost an exorbitant amount. Unfortunately, these are few and far between. So how can you get the upper hand?

Go to your local store which sells things to write with (Staples/Rite Aid/Art XTREME, whatever) and pick up a few sharpies. Nowadays, you can get these markers in just about any color, even specialty colors like metallics, like the one I used to create this shirt:

Now, the shirt itself is a plain black tee shirt which I picked up on sale from Old Navy for $6.00, and the sharpie came in a two-pack for $2.00, so overall, a $7.00 total. Far less than your standard graphic tees, even from more cost-friendly locations. A quick aside, whenever solid color tees are on sale, make a point to take advantage, especially if you can score colors you don’t have. A diverse arsenal of undershirt colors expands your wardrobe exponentially. (That is of course a figure of speech, in reality, assuming you can wear only one undershirt at a time, the addition of a new undershirt color multiplies your number of outfit choices by a factor of (n+1)/n, where n is the number of undershirts you previously had…but this isn’t the math blog.

Of course, if you create your own graphic tee, you have to come up with and execute the design yourself. Fortunately, a design doesn’t have to be complex to be interesting, and there is inspiration everywhere. Even if you have trouble creating an image in your mind’s eye, there are probably many designs you already know of; an favorite band’s logo, a design scratched into the sidewalk, an icon on your desktop screen. All of these things are often simple enough to reproduce, as long as you take your time.

Once you’ve chosen a design, you need to select your color(s) and draw the thing. Some tips for execution;

First, make sure the color you’ve chosen is appropriately visible. Flip the shirt inside-out and draw a test swatch near one of the side seams. (where you do it is really only important if the shirt is white, so that it’s less likely to been seen, should the ink show through)
Unfold the shirt all the way, and find the horizontal center of the shirt using a ruler or a piece of string. Typically, it’s much easier to notice if a design is poorly aligned left-to-right, as opposed to up-and-down.
When drawing the actual design, use physical guides as much as possible. For circles, use a mug or a pot. For lines, use a ruler. This will take a lot of the guesswork out things and make the end product look a lot cleaner.
Use short, controlled strokes. It’s much easier to maintain a correct path when you only move short distances. It cuts down on the complex physics your arm has to navigate in keeping your fingers, wrist, and forearm working as a team to move your marker. The overlap between strokes is very difficult to see on the shirt, since the marker cuts a fairly wide path and multiple strokes don’t make the ink appear noticeably darker.
Take your time. There’s only so much you can fit on the shirt, so even if you’re patient and take it slow, doing this usually won’t take more than 15-20 minutes. Slow down. It’s a lot easier to do it right the first time.

With any luck, you should now be in possession of a brand-new graphic tee shirt with an interesting, one-of-a-kind design. Let it hang dry for a little while before you show the world, to let the fumes from the marker dissipate. Don’t worry about the ink rubbing off. If you wait more than thirty seconds to wear it, that just won’t happen. Sweet. For less than ten bucks (.4-.8 store-bought shirts, depending on your exchange rate), and about twenty minutes, you’ve got a shirt that nobody else does. A shirt that reflects your individuality, and will have people asking, “hey, where’d you buy that?”

General Fashion Philosophy

2008-05-06T12:58:00.000-04:00

If I’m going to be writing a fashion blog, I really need to give you an overview of how I look at fashion. Many people view fashion as an art form, which to some extent is a fair statement. Obviously, people often overstate this with unnecessarily grandiose and pretentious statements;

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” – Coco Chanel
Fashion is as profound and critical a part of the social life of man as sex, and is made up of the same ambivalent mixture of irresistible urges and inevitable taboos.” – Rene Konig
Fashion is so close in revealing a person’s inner feelings and everybody seems to hate to lay claim to vanity so people tend to push it away. It’s really too close to the quick of the soul.” – Stella Blum

Now, finding these ridiculous gems took about two minutes and a Google search. I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find many, many more. But these statements don’t really get us anywhere. I’m a mathematician, so I am naturally inclined to look at things from a more rigorous perspective. Dictionary definitions won’t do, they’re not constructive enough, rather, we need a working definition. Coming up with a definition for fashion closely parallels definition writing in mathematics. If the definition isn’t precise enough, we risk having to use judgment (highly non-rigorous) to determine if something that fits the definition really should be called fashion. If the definition is too restrictive, we can’t use it do anything interesting. Any information we’d like to derive about fashion would either be tied up in this definition or contradictory to it. Our work is certainly cut out for us.

Let’s begin by looking at what you and I have control over in getting clothes on to our bodies. First, we have control over what individual products we decide to purchase (or construct, though most of us make very few of our own articles of clothing). We do not have any control (unless you’re in the business) over what products are made available or for what price they are made available. Second, once we’ve built a wardrobe of individual items, we have control over which permutations of these items we decide to wear on a given day, and in what configuration. We’ve got an incredible number of choi.ces. If you’re building a wardrobe and decide to purchase 10 shirts, and you go to some stores and see 50 shirt choices, then you can create a staggering 10272278170 [math: combinations], [math: permutations] sets of ten shirts! Then, say you wake up in the morning and look in your closet which contains 10 shirts, 8 pairs of pants, and 4 pairs of shoes. That’s 320 distinct outfits right there.

Now, if all shirts were the same, all pants were the same, and all shoes were the same, this would be an easy decision (and fashion would seemingly become trivial, as we’ll see when we get to our definition). Of course, there are large numbers of distinct clothing items available for purchase. We need to examine what factors allow us to distinguish among different pieces of clothing. I claim that there are five:

Color: Fairly self-explanatory, this refers to the color(s) of the garment.
Texture: Refers to the physical texture of the fabric the garment is composed of.
Pattern: Refers to the arrangement of distinct colors on the garment.
Shape: Refers to the shape(s) the garment takes when worn.
Fit: Refers to the way in which the garment adheres to the body.

I argue that if two garments have the same color, texture, pattern, shape and fit, then they would look exactly the same on you. Thus, these five things provide the information we need to decide what pieces of clothing to purchase and to wear.

But what’s the point? Why do we invest time and money into making these decisions? What makes us move past the utilitarian need for clothing to protect our bodies from the elements and fuss about whether to wear the black or blue suit today? Well, that fashion. And that’s a really unsatisfying explanation, so allow me to elaborate. For us to spend resources (both mental and physical) on deciding what to wear, there must be some motivation, some goal. Of course, these goals are not the same for each person, or the same for you each day! In the example above, if you wear a suit to work everyday, normally you probably don’t pay much attention to which color you wear each day. But the day you interview for a promotion, you may very well spend thirty minutes trying to figure our which color will give your potential new boss the best first impression. A more basic and universal goal is abiding by social norms. I bet that most of you put on matching socks today, out of a habit grounded in the goal of not being found wearing mismatched socks (and thus avoiding potential embarrassment). However, some goals are more difficult to unravel; such as why people are often told not to wear brown shoes with black pants (to be covered another time). It is often this kind of confusion which causes people to be put off by the idea of fashion. In reality, fashion is nothing more than the following;

Definition: Fashion is the selection and organization of garments to be worn, based on the color, texture, pattern, shape, and fit of each garment and the relations of these qualities among the garments, to achieve some goal(s).

Of course, the hard part is figuring out what combinations of garments achieve a particular set of goals, and why this is so. It is this somewhat scientific approach that underlies my philosophy of fashion. As this blog progresses, I intend to write about the following things;

Why I have particular fashion goals.
How to achieve these fashion goals.
How to understand the governing dynamics of fashion goals.